Google in Talks to Buy YouTube

Posted on October 6, 2006

Michael Arrington blogged earlier today about an email he received about a possible Google purchase of YouTube.com.

I got an email tonight about a possible Google acquisition of YouTube that may be in the final stages before closing. Rumored price is $1.6 billion. A quick phone call to a VC confirmed that the rumor is circulating (he also confirmed the price), but that is far from confirmation that this deal is happening. I'm digging for more but the source on this one is very good.
We know that YouTube has had informal talks with a number of companies about acquisition in the $1.5 - $2 billion range. And I suspect Google won't be daunted by the prospect of dealing with a ton of pissed off copyright holders.

The rumor was repeated on a number of tech blogs (see here). The Wall Street Journal followed up on the rumor by calling a source who confirmed that Google is in talks to acquire YouTube. However, no purchase has been confirmed and its possible there will not be a deal.

Google Inc. is in talks to acquire popular video-sharing site YouTube Inc. for roughly $1.6 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The discussions are still at a sensitive stage and could well break off, this person says.
A spokeswoman for YouTube could not be reached for comment. A Google spokesman said, "We don't comment on rumors and speculation." Rumors of such talks were reported earlier on the TechCrunch blog.

You can read more about the possibility of a YouTube, Facebook or Technorati sale here in a post we made a couple weeks ago.